Great Scott Eyes Reopening After Online Campaign Raises $190K

ALLSTON, MA — In less than a month an iconic music venue that had announced it was closing after 44 years in Packard's Corner was able to raise more than it expected and some are hoping it will reopen some time in the future when venues are permitted to reopen, according to a spokesperson.

After 44 years of hosting live music in the Allston neighborhood, Great Scott, one of Boston’s iconic venues closed for good last month, citing financial troubles as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It was just one among more than 100,000 small businesses to close in May.

"With new soundproofing and other improvements, the beloved music venue [is hoping to] reopen, better than ever before," a spokesperson said Tuesday in an email to Patch. "This is thanks to retail investors from our own community in Boston, and led by the venue’s long-time booking agent and local startup, MainVest."

After Great Scott announced it was shuttering, social media lit up with memories and laments. Fans rallied, starting an online petition to ask the landlord, Oak Hill Properties, to keep Great Scott alive. Others started a GoFundMe and former bar manager Tim Philibin started to sell shirts to raise money to help employees, and pulled in more than $40,000 from 400-plus donors.

It inspired Carl Lavin, the venue's booking agent to team up with Mainvest, an MA-based investment crowdfunding platform that specializes in helping local businesses and offers revenue-share investments, to raise the money to reopen Great Scott and keep it open.

Lavin struck a deal with Great Scott's longtime owner, Frank Strenk, to transfer the venue's intellectual property and its liquor license.

The next step was to use the capital raised (to date: nearly 500 people have raised $190,400) through the platform to attempt to negotiate a lease with Oak Hill Properties, the current building owners at 1222 Commonwealth Ave and then to renovate the space to include better soundproofing.

It's still not clear when music venues will be able to reopen and according to one person familiar with the account, a lease has yet to be negotiated.

Previously: Campaign To Save Great Scott Raises $75K, Fans ...

Great Scott opened in 1976 as a bar with a performance space. Since then, it's been considered a hub for the arts. The venue with its iconic checkered floors hosted bands and performers from a variety of genres throughout the past four decades, plus stand up comedy, and the long-running LGBTQ dance party Don't Ask Don't Tell.

In 2016 the bar cracked the top 10 of the 100 greatest music venues in America, beating out the Sinclair in Cambridge and the Paradise Rock Club for the greatest music venue title in Massachusetts.

[EDITORS NOTE: This article has been changed from its original after the spokesperson said they made an error. ]

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a press release you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how to post a press release, a column, event or opinion piece.